Electric-car brake



(No Model.) I

A. 0. MILLER. ELECTRIC UAR BRAKE.

No. 489,972. Patented Jan. 17,1893

NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANDREW C. MILLER, OF AUBURN, NEW YORK.

ELECTRIC-CAR BRAKE,

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 489,972, dated January17, 1893.

Application filed November 30, 1891. Renewed August 1'7, 1892- SerialNo. 443,300. (No model.)

To ctZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANDREW O. MILLER, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of Auburn, county of Cayuga, and State of New York, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Electric-Gar Brakes, of whichthe followingis a full, clear, and exact description, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in car brakes and is especiallydesigned to be employed in connection with cars which are propelled byan electric motor.

It consists in the combination with the armature shaft of an electricmotor car, of the friction brake consisting of a flexible strapsurrounding a drum or wheel on the armature shaft and having its endspivotally united to a lever, which is pivoted to the truck frame, orother suitable point, and adapted to be operated by the attendant fromeither end of the car through intermediate connections; as hereinafterdescribed and claimed.

In the accompanying drawingsz-Figure 1 is a plan view of so much of acar gear, 850., as is necessary to show the application of my improvedbrake, and Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same.

The truck may be of any construction usuallyemployed in connection withan electric motor, preferably of the kind employing an open center forgiving access to the motor, 850., and only somuch thereof and of the carbody are shown as is necessary to illustrate my improvement. The axlesindicated at A, A, have spur gears B, B, secured to them, which engagepinions C, O, on transverse shafts 0, each of which carries a spur gear0 011 one end, which, in turn, engages and is driven by a pinion D onthe armature shaft D of an electric motor, which may be of any usual orpreferred form. These armature shafts are mounted in suitable bearingsin the truck frame, and are provided, each, on the end opposite thepinion D, with a drum or flanged friction wheel E. Upon suitablesupporting brackets on the truck frame are pivoted lovers to and a, oneat each side, made in the form of a three armed lever, one of the arms abeing shown made in the form of an ec-= centric, extending on the sideadjacent to and in the same vertical, longitudinal plane with the drumE, and to this eccentric arm a and a pendent arm a of the lever, theends of a strap spring 6, extending around the drum E, are attached, thearrangement being such that when the upper, actuating arm a, of thelever is vibrated toward the drum, the lower end of the strap or springwill be carried outward, or away from the drum, while, at the same time,the upper end of the strap will be drawn downward toward the lower end,thereby causing the strap to snugly grasp the drum and so to act with afirm frictional grasp for stopping the rotation thereof and of thearmature shaft on which said drum is mounted. A reverse movement of thelever, a, serves to expand the are of the spring strap and so to freethe drum from its grasp,

The upper arm a, of the lever is connected by a rod (Z, with one end ofa transverse lever F or F, fulcrumed at its adjacent end. in a bracketf,secured either to the car body or to a suitable support on the truck, asmay be preferred. The opposite end of this lever F is connected by alink f with a transverse lever G or G, located, one at each end andpivoted, preferably, to the lower face of the car body. The outer endsof these levers G and G are connected by rods 9, g, which may be guidedby suitable pendent pulleys h, h, in proper position to prevent contactwith the gear and traction wheels, the arrangement being such that wheneither lever G or G is operated upon, the other will be vibratedthereby, and through said lovers, the brake levers a and a, will besimultaneously operated for applying the brake straps b, b, to orreleasing them from the drums E, E, on the armature shaft.

One end of each lever G or G, has a chain I connected with it andextending thence over a suitable guiding sheave t' to the brake staff orhandle at I, through which said levers may be operated in any usualmanner for applying or releasing the brakes.

J, J, indicate springs, which may be of any suitable form andarrangement, for retracting the levers F and F and relieving the brakes,after they have been applied and the brake staff has been released.

The arrangement of the connectinglevers,

through which the brake levers F and F are actuated, and also the formof the gearing connecting the armature shafts with the axles, may, ofcourse, be varied, as these, in themselves, do not constitute myinvention, which, as stated, relates to the specific means for applyingthe braking action to the armature shaft of the actuating motor, andthence through the connecting gears to the axles and traction Wheels,thereby operating on the prime motor shaft instead of on the tractionwheels, as ordinarily done.

It will be seen that the straps b, b, are supported by their actuatinglevers only, and are so arranged relative to the arms of the latter asto be Wound snugly around the armature shaft drum, when acting asbrakes, while a reverse movement of the lever expands the strap and soreleases said drum, leaving it free to rotate. The ,describedarrangement of the straps is important, as it enables me to apply thebrakes with equal effect with the car moving in either direction andobviates the jerky action consequent upon attaching one end of the straponly to the actuating lever, the other end being attached to a fixedpoint on the truck.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

The combination in a car-brakemechanism of the drums or band wheels onthe armature shafts of the electric motors, the strap-spring brakessurrounding said drums, the levers for operating said straps, both endsof said straps being connected to their respective levers, and thetransverse levers and their connections with the brake staffs orhandles,

whereby the brake straps may be simultaneously operated from either endof the car, all substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 24th day ofNovember, A. D.

